Tea strainers

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On Saturday I had a moment of madness in Liberty and spent £4.50 on Madagascan black tea with vanilla pod extract. (It's lovely). I was making some, leaves in the pot, using a tea strainer and my housemate (who is from New Zealand) pointed at it and said:
"Oh so that's what that plastic thing's for!"

I couldn't quite believe he'd managed 34 years on the planet without seeing a tea strainer.

I filed this in Anglo. Anyone outside Britain come across a tea strainer before?

― Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Teeny weeny sieve for making fairy cakes with obv.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Yup. Just got two the other day, actually.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:29 (twenty-three years ago)

You clearly don't understand what they are for if you bought two, Ned.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:30 (twenty-three years ago)

The Irish have them too. We don't use them for straining tea though.

― Lara, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:41 (twenty-three years ago)

*beats N savagely* It's always good to have a spare.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:44 (twenty-three years ago)

What about tea-strainers that come in two halves with a hinge?

(is now scared in case it has a totally different purpose)

― Mark C (Mark C), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:59 (twenty-three years ago)

I want to get one of those as mine broke. You put the tea inside, close the hinge and put it in your mug (or, I suppose, pot). No mess! No fuss!

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

That's a pomander you fool.

― Lara, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:03 (twenty-three years ago)

That was in reply to Mark, obv.

― Lara, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Are the spring operated ones that snap shut like a clamshell when you stop squeezing the handle also called pomanders? I used to call it 'metallic teabag'.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I have no idea what this is.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I was trying to be funny. I will stop now.

A pomander is a small receptacle made of wire mesh that ladies wore around their necks in olden times. They used to fill them with petals to disguise the nasty smells their bodies gave off. This as before Nivea body wipes were invented.

― Lara, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

L., what do the Irish use them for then, please, if not for straining tea?

― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

In theory those snap-shut tea pomanders sound great, but I am convinced that metal tea strainers make the tea taste....er....metallic.

I have a Bodum glass teapot that has a central core of perforated plastic to put the tea leaves in. It's very swish, but a bugger to clean.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:16 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't bother to check before writing, but wasn't a pomander also an orange stuck with cloves that one could hold under one's nose to drown the smell of the great unwashed?

― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:17 (twenty-three years ago)

have never quite understood tea strainers as it seems one wd need to fill mug dangerously full of boiling water in order to reach lip, where yr strainer rests with its tea leaves in?

i prefer the tea bulbs mr dastoor mentions, because i am american and like everything to be easy.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Also a bugger to fill - it takes ages for the water to soak through the tea leaves. Bodum teapots are a triumph of style over content. I believe they were invented by Paul Morley.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:19 (twenty-three years ago)

have never quite understood tea strainers as it seems one wd need to fill mug dangerously full of boiling water in order to reach lip, where yr strainer rests with its tea leaves in?

Ha ha Tracer has compeletely misunderstood the tea strainer.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the bodum coffee things, since we got a small one. I don't drink tea.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I have never made tea with a tea strainer. I have never bought tea leaves. I've never used a teapot. I LIKE TEABAGS dammit. (No comments about teabagging please...)

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:22 (twenty-three years ago)

L., what do the Irish use them for then, please, if not for straining tea?

Backstreet abortions.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:22 (twenty-three years ago)

have never quite understood tea strainers as it seems one wd need to fill mug dangerously full of boiling water in order to reach lip, where yr strainer rests with its tea leaves in?

Either Tracer or I must be very wrong about what a tea strainer is/does, because I don't understand the above at all.

[OK I see that N thinks it's Tracer. Good.]

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Tracer - you don't put the dry leaves in the strainer in order to brew it in the mug. You make the tea in the pot and then pour into a cup with the strainer on top to catch the leaves, like a sieve.

Some pots now have integrated strainers, rendering them redundant.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Mooro - a pomander isn't something that is *also* used for that purpose. It is purely used to protect the wearer from the vile smelling people surrounding them. Posh birds had metal ones with petals in. I suppose if you couldn't afford that you could use an orange or whatever was to hand. Sweet smelling parsnip?

I've got an antique one (posh type). Dublin's can be a smelly place, especially now that we have all those foreigners visiting at weekends.

― Lara, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:27 (twenty-three years ago)

i have to admit that does sound easy!! throw leaves in pot and away you go! who says the english aren't cavalier!

i went to buy teabulbs in chinatown one time (because i am american and i like everything to be individualized) and was told that i had a choice between "big" "little" and "cute"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought the pomander was to protect yourself from your OWN stink as well. Rich people didn't have deodorant either, after all.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I struggled to link to this, so:

One entry found for pomander.

Main Entry: po·man·der
Pronunciation: 'pO-"man-d&r, pO-'
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, modification of Middle French pome d'ambre, literally, apple or ball of amber
Date: 15th century
1 : a mixture of aromatic substances enclosed in a perforated bag or box and used to scent clothes and linens or formerly carried as a guard against infection; also : a clove-studded orange or apple used for the same purposes
2 : a box or hollow fruit-shaped ball for holding pomander

― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Many metropolitan areas used to have community pomanders, much like Amsterdam has community bicycles.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to have one of those in my knicker drawer at home.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I still want to know what tea strainers are used for across the water!

― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

That reminds me, i wasn't paying attention and picked up earl grey leaf tea instead of bags, i'll have to purloin a tea strainer.

― leigh (leigh), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Tea strainers, infusers and houses.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Ha ha Nick wears girls pants!

― Lara, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Mooro - we use tea strainers to mash potatoes, obv.

― Lara, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Their selection of "cute" infusers is dispiriting.

(Mooro - water is used across a tea strainer, surely, and not the other way around?)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, now we're the expert?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:54 (twenty-three years ago)

What does a cute infuser look like?

― Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a hinged tea strainer, but it was pretty useless, as tea leaves used to escape from the ill fitting join.

That reminds me, I need teapot for my new house. Bizarrely I already have the tea strainer.

― Vicky (Vicky), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:05 (twenty-three years ago)

http://store5.yimg.com/I/herb-trader_1721_16773593

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:08 (twenty-three years ago)

alternately, Anna, they can look like Graham

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:08 (twenty-three years ago)

For the discerning tea drinker

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

My browser is not playing. I can't see the picture. I am sad.

― Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

As cutie-wootie as I am, what's that supposed to mean?

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Although secretly rather happy that a thread about tea strainers could gather 42 new answers in such a short space of time. We really do love everything!

(And hey kids, let's do the show right here!)

[Miss Fielding, please move away from the computer. Stop typing, that's right, hands where we can see them.]

― Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

And just when she was going to burst into song. Hmmph.

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to sell the strainer that Tracer has posted. Well, probably not that very one, but ones that looked like it.

― rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:27 (twenty-three years ago)

See how it comes with a handy clasp, so you can affix it to your keyring! Never be without your tea house!

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 17:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I am pouting because Starry won't let me make jokes about teabagging.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:16 (twenty-three years ago)

*sigh* I wish I'd never asked what that was.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Tea strainers rule! No, they won't make your tea taste metallic, unless they're made out of lead or something. Tea bags will make it taste papery though.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:27 (twenty-three years ago)

"The strainer in your cup/Won't make your tea metallic"

(to the tune of "Black Metallic")

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:28 (twenty-three years ago)

(haha "teabagging" ===> "cup strainer")

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:44 (twenty-three years ago)

It's great how as soon as a topic starts to interest me, it appears on ILE! I was all excited today because I remembered that the Bodum "french" coffee press is ideal for making loose tea. I have a plethora of loose tea leaves and don't like the messy strainer method. That had been weighing on my mind until my breakthrough. Now I am sipping a delicious cup of first-flush Darjeeling, with more waiting amberly in the carafe!

Search also: ceramic tea pot with plastic mesh strainer built in.

― Paul Eater (eater), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Speaking of loose-leaf tea, one place to get a great deal on good loose-leaf tea is at your local Indian grocery. I got a big tin of imported Darjeeling for about $6.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 19:02 (twenty-three years ago)

(Mooro - water is used across a tea strainer, surely, and not the other way around?)

Sorry Tracer Hand - I didn't want to type "in Ireland" again - water = Irish Sea, across which = Emerald Isle.

L., thanks, although I don't believe you, as I am sure you eat potatoes raw.

― Mooro (Mooro), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 21:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't believe you found a new zealander who didn't know everything there is to know about making tea. It is our national pastime. When I left university I gave my supervisor a tea strainer (flash metal one) as a parting gift.

― isadora (isadora), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 21:25 (twenty-three years ago)

But wouldn't using a tea strainer cause each cup to be progressively stronger? Ending with totally undrinkable sludge at the bottom of the pot? Which would be truly horific? Surely a teabag or bulb is the way to go.

― , Wednesday, 15 January 2003 01:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I like tea strainers. They are neat. Mine is white with fine wire mesh. I do not approve of the ones with plastic mesh as it looks cheap.

I do not like tea infusers.

I do not like tea bags with stapes in them.

Today I am drinking Irish Breakfast Tead from teabags with staples in them.

― toraneko (toraneko), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 02:03 (twenty-three years ago)

The staples are the best part.

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 02:28 (twenty-three years ago)

my grandmother owned a selection of tea strainers which depending upon who she was entertaining she would choose the appropriate teastrainer, ie the silver one for fellow golf ladies
the plastic and fine wire one for the grandies and the great big tin sort of one for the shearers big teapots

― hellbaby (hellbaby), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 04:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Not only am I familiar with the tea strainer (being the proud owner of several of them) I also possess an absolutely hideous-looking (early 70s orange, brown, and...vomit?) but extremely effective tea cozy. Of course, I live with a Canadian, so maybe that's the British influence coming through and affecting this transported Californian.
Ta - Laura (Who is off to brew some blueberry tea).

― LCD (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 04:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Prometheus, it sounds like you're anti-pot. There is something to be said for your observations, but if you make a pot you usually pour lots of cups for people at once. Yes, if there's stuff left then the magic of leaving the tea in is that you can add water to it and make more tea that still tastes good (it partly brews more and partly just dilutes the stewedness, I guess).

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:24 (twenty-three years ago)

It's important to point out that you don't put the tea-leaves that you've strained back in, either.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No. But a lot will stay in anyway.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:02 (twenty-three years ago)

while in England.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:12 (twenty-three years ago)

" you don't put the dry leaves in the strainer in order to brew it in the mug. You make the tea in the pot and then pour into a cup with the strainer on top to catch the leaves"

OK I think we are dealing with some cultural differences here. When I was in Japan, the way tea was made was with the strainer inside of the pot. Filling up the water a second time over the same leaves was quite common. But, at KateSuzyEdflatTM I noticed that the tea was poured through a strainer that was above the cup. Also, I've drank at tea houses in Korea where they just brewed the tea without strainers and poured if out, allowing all the leaves to float in your cup. Right now I have two marvels of engineering from Bodum, one tea pot with a plastic strainer inside and one tea cup with its very own indivudual strainer.

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 24 January 2003 07:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes but Mary, the things you put inside pots aren't called 'tea strainers' - they're tea infusers or 'tea bulbs' as you Americans seem to call them. Different. They enclose tea from all sides. Tracer's confusion was caused by him mistaking a tea strainer for a sporty tea infuser.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 24 January 2003 14:49 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

anemone tea

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 20:36 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

For those among us with a love for design, durable clever gadgets, and tea: yesterday I came across a product called the Teastick, mispriced, and found a bit of income to dispose of. Scoop, infuser, and stirrer for single large cups of loose tea, and I quite like it. Seen online for $10-18.

http://sweetspot.ca/archive/files/spotted/TEA-gamilla-tea-stick.jpg

― Pauper Management Improved (Sanpaku), Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:10 (fifteen years ago)

i've never used a tea strainer...are they good? how do they work? i tasted some fucking amazing tea at xmas in some french themed tea shop in dublin...they have a branch over here and basically i want in. but it's leaves only so a strainer is necessary.

― I see what this is (Local Garda), Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:36 (fifteen years ago)

don't need a strainer if u leave it for a few mins and poor slowly but yeah they are worth having

i use it for filtering grapefruit juice mostly

― Nigie Dempstah (nakhchivan), Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:37 (fifteen years ago)

That Teastick is pretty cool, Sanpaku! Though I find I lean towards ye olde styles for tea, mostly out of nostalgia I think, lol.

I use a tea ball for single cups, and I love it.

My Nan had one of these, they're pretty boss too
http://im1.ebidst.com/upload_big/0/7/7/1292180498-26197-0.jpg

― VegemiteGrrrl, Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:46 (fifteen years ago)

I can't believe I was so ignorant of tea strainers' mode of operation. The shame.

― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:52 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.swiss-miss.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/OT-264A_350.jpg

My clever sister got me this cute little thing for my birthday and I love it.

― chupacabra seeds (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:10 (thirteen years ago)

wait I guess that thing's an infuser
anyway it makes tea happen

― chupacabra seeds (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:10 (thirteen years ago)

That is super. Where would I find one of these? Would make such a good gift for someone I know.

― owenf, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:15 (thirteen years ago)

it is called the "tea sub," I think my sister got it on amazon but there're other online places you can buy it from

― chupacabra seeds (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:20 (thirteen years ago)

I put a nail in my kitchen wall to hang it from so I can admire my psychedelic tea toy

― chupacabra seeds (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:21 (thirteen years ago)

the tea toy is psychedelic, the tea I am making is not

― chupacabra seeds (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:21 (thirteen years ago)

I only drink psychedelic tea.

― owenf, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 11:52 (thirteen years ago)

Mug of glass
and tea of green
in my Yellow
Submarine

― Jeff Goldblum is watching you, pope! (snoball), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 12:11 (thirteen years ago)

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